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Sunday, November 2, 2014

After completing the R&R San Diego Half Marathon, my legs were weary, my mind was tired, and running was beating me down. There are no inspiring words of wisdom resulted from my sabbatical from training.

Oh, I ran spatially, put on five pounds, and rested.

My new running friend asked if I wanted to join her for The All American Hero 10k/5k , August 31, 2014. It's located Point Loma at Liberty Station. Proceeds go to a high school art's program and to the Wounded Warrior Project. Our daughters are best friends. They joined in running a 5k. A week before the race, I had my 6'3" son cut the large palm fruit off on the the queen palm trees when the chair he was standing on broke! Luckily he wasn't hurt but his hand holding the shears came crashing down on top of my head! 4 staples and tetanus shot later, I was grateful it wasn't worse.

If anyone has ever read this blog, knows that 4 staples wasn't going to keep me from racing later that week. I just wore a hat so not to freak anyone out of they got close enough to see but ditched it when it got too hot.

The morning was 70 degrees and humid with no wind. The race started on time with 130 runners for 10k and about 30 minute later, the 110 runners for 5/k started. This course is flat with a small hill going over the North San Diego Bay. It's a 3 mile loop, repeat and easy. My running pal did awesome completing at a 10:08 minute pace! My daughter who walked the 5k, completed at a 14:25 minute pace!

Sunday, June 15, 2014

In May after a 16 mile long run, training for the Rock and Roll San Diego full marathon, I received a text from my running pal. She said she was going to change to the half marathon due to an injury.

Over the last few weeks, I had been struggling mentally during all the runs. Pure and simple, I stopped enjoying them. So, after the text from my friend, I switched to the half marathon too.

Less crowds on a late Friday Expo

I was relieved because I was a bit washed out. In the past, I've said, running to train for a race is completely different than running for exercise. Now it's up to me to find my happiness again.

Heading over the bridge by Petco Park to catch shuttles to race.

Rock and Roll Half Marathon is a really fun race. The residents in the neighborhoods make is race fanatics! The bacon lady, the kids hi-5'ing you while wrapped in their blankets still sporting their bed hair, families of all generations, the guys karaoke on their front lawn, the ladies in their lawn chair cheering, the guys passing out Patron tequila, beer, candy, and oranges all make me want to do it all over again! Thank you thank you thank you!

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Holy crap another hill Batman! This was by far one of the toughest half marathons I've ever ran. That's not easy to say as I've ran the hills in San Francisco, San Dieguito, & the La Jolla.

Mac Cheesing before the race!

I picked up my bib on the Friday before the race, at the Temecula Running Center or could have waited for race day packet pick up. The bib had the timing chip. They passed out tiny safety pins. I used safety pins I had from a past race at home, had to created a different hole because the bib holes were wonky.

Coffee would be better!

The race began on a Saturday. It was perfect weather, about 54 degrees, a slight breeze, & over cast for most of the race at Live Oak Park in Fallbrook. There is a park bathroom to use and no porta potties. There were 315 Half Marathoners and 264 5k runners. We all started at the same time at 0715. The race was on the same day at the Avocado Festival and boast "Run through Avocado Country".

There were a few Ragnar runners here today!

Pfffftttt I didn't see any Avocado trees and we ran through Fallbrook. The Highway Patrol controlled traffic and there were no problems that I noticed. The course first takes runners onto Grid Rd towards Fallbrook Golf Club for 1.5 miles, turn around and head back towards Live Oak Park. Runners doing the 5k finish here and the rest head up a huge hill for 2.0 miles. This sequence continued on throughout the entire course.

We match! Haha chatted with him & his friend prior to start!

We ran past Fallbrook High School were a guy had a large speaker playing music and shouted accolades to the passing runners. He was the shizzle! Thanks speaker dude! At mile 8, runners turned around again to head back the way we came to the finish line at Live Oak Park.

Smaller hill!

Wow! That was crazy! At the finish line, I found myself looking for the crazy ass who thought this course was a good idea as I thanked the nice volunteer for putting the medal around my neck. I feel sorry for anyone who was running a half marathon for the first time because they are all not like this one!

Post race mac cheese!

Afterwards, I went to board a school bus shuttle heading back to the high school where I parked my car. This took 45 minutes of waiting on the bus before the Highway Patrol gave permission for the bus to leave. I met a nice runner on the bus who swapped race stories to pass the time.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

So Cal Ragnar is a 194 mile relay race in a 2 day time frame from Huntington Beach to San Diego.

It's a medal & bottle opener!

The morning of April 4th, 2014, I met up with the Running Turdles, Van 2, over coffee & breakfast burritos. Our team captain was very well organized, upbeat, chatty, & always positive! The runners are all friendly & welcoming. They were all Ragnar Veterans & shared their experiences. Being around people with the same interest is always fun!

Van 2 mac cheesing as we head to Irvine for our first legs!

Around 0930 we hit the road to meet Van 1 at Orange County Great Park.We all brought snacks of our choice. Our team captain purchased water & Gatorade mix. Runners are ushered into marked areas to completed the I promise not to sue Ragnar form, safety talks, decorate the van, then waited to begin racing. This was 1 of 4 major exchanges where the Van 1 & 2 meet. It's a race type atmosphere but a lotta dress up! My goal is to have fun!

When I put myself out there on the So Cal Ragnar Facebook saying I was available to run Ragnar, afterwards, it hit me there may be a small chance I'd have to wear a costume. I don't mind wearing a costume...on Halloween, but it's crazy to run in one! To my relief, no costume, but had bad ass t-shirts with a pooping turtle on the toilet instead! Maybe I'll wear it to church :)

Van 2 Art!

The Running Turdles had a total of 10 runners with 5 in each van. Some other teams were Ultra and most had 12 runners on their teams. Our van had one guy & 4 girls. It wasn't a industrial van but a family rental van which made it more comfortable, easy in /out at exchanges, & easy to park. The Running Turdles are a wonderful group of laid back personalities. Most of the time was spent getting to & from the exchanges, running, sleeping, or eating. Freeze breeze couldn't mask our smelly bellies. Perfect two days!

It speaks for itself!

Van #1 had a delayed start. It's not really clear what happened. Both days had perfect weather to run in.

Around 2:16pm, Van 1, 6th leg runner came into the chute & made the exchange. Our race began! I met Van 1 runners, chatted for a bit, then spent almost an hour getting out of the parking lot onto open road.

Looking for Van 1. Getting snacks & water for our 6th leg runner.

Quickly, you find out, with Ragnar racing, there are a lot of variables. Runners race on sidewalks and have to stop for traffic lights. It's all about the experience of running and meeting people. We ran 35.5 miles through Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Laguna Nigel, & Dana Point in 6hr14 mins.

There were 3 people in our van that drove & navigated to the next exchanges. They worked really well together. Ragnar has a list of rules to follow called the Ragnar Bible because the primary goal is safety.

My first leg coming into Dana Point. So so pretty here!

After our first legs were done, we exchanged again with Van 1 & headed to Oceanside for a hot meal on a Friday night! We didn't want fast food & found the Hunter Steakhouse in Oceanside! Thank you for having us and the meal was delicious! After dinner we parked at the 2nd major exchange at Junior Seau Pier Amphitheater in Oceanside. We were able to use the beach restroom & change into our second set of clothes. I slept in the van where it was warm for about 4 hours. 12:00am was our wake up call to get our first runner ready. At 1:40, our 1st runner took off for exchange 19. Thank you to the many churches & community centers that allowed Ragnar to use their parking lots. It's misting and sprinkling the morning of the 5th. Again, good weather to run in. In a little over 5 hours we had completed 23.7 miles.

Sweaty & hungry!

Having completed our 2nd leg, we drove a Starbucks in Torrey Pines, changed washed up a bit, changed into our 3rd set of clothing then made our way to Torrey Pine Gliderport, the 3rd major exchange. Here, Ragnar offered an all you can eat breakfast of pancakes, french toast, bacon, sausage, & eggs for $8.00. We all slept for about 2 to 3 hours before getting up to race again.

Good morning Torrey Pines! Feeling refreshed with

new chonies on & brushed sweaters off my teeth!

I ran leg 12. Each team has a Ragnar document recording the times they started. Ragnar factors in the lights & leg offset adjusted times. Here's how it broke down for me:Leg 12: 6.66 Ragnar Miles, 10:41 Ragnar Pace
My Garmin without pausing: 6.73 Miles, 11:14 PaceLeg 24: 4.89 Ragnar Miles, 10:38 Ragnar Pace
My Garmin without pausing: 4.88 Miles, 10:55 Pace (fewer traffic lights & it was 3:30am)Leg 36: 5.41 Ragnar Miles, 11: 29 Ragnar Pace (I got lost twice!)
My Garmin without pausing: 5.5 Miles, 11:05 Pace
Running through areas I've never seen, made time fly. My first leg was really hilly through Laguna Nigel, the second was a large ass hill in Carlsbad, & my final was flat to the finish line along Harbor Dr in San Diego.

I reviewed my route each time I ran, but for the most part, the routes are marked. Thank you to the Ragnar runners who saw me running the wrong way, had pedestrians flag me down to turn me around!
Our team captain told me it's a tradition to take a picture of the last mile of the race. So who am I to monkey with tradition? Our final legs took us a little over 7hrs to complete 33.6 miles to the finish line.

Me in black cap like a horse to the barn!

Ragnar is what you make of it and a wonderful challenging race. Whether or not I'll do it again is still up in the air!

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Holy hot as hell Batman! This was the 2nd Annual Temecula St. Patrick 15k held at Cougar Winery.
The weather started out at 67 & quickly went up to 78 degrees.

The race had same day bib pick up at 8:00 a.m. There was no long lines for anything including the porta-potties because only 167 runners showed up. This might be due to the late start time of 9:00 a.m. Might has well start at 1200 p.m. because there really isn't a difference. Hot is hot!

I sat in my car & changed out of my cute compression socks into short socks. There was no doubt I was going to sweat buckets today.

About 10 minutes prior to the race, I walked over and stood under a tree for shade, closer to the start line. A very nice girl approached asking me to take her picture & before the race, she found me again, told me her goal was to finish the race, explaining she had lost a lot a weight after she began to run. I was so excited for her! We have that in common. During the race, at about mile 2.6, after one of many steep hills to follow, she ran by me. She powered up the steep hills, but it was getting hotter. Mile 3.5, I caught up to her on a flat & didn't see her again until the finish. Awesome race whom ever you are!
Almost everyone had green on. Some wore costumes. *applause* running with a costume is truely difficult!

It was quiet. A guy gave last minute instructions to follow the man on the bike. Early, I hear the man on the bike tell some women some of the hills are so steep, his bike wheel comes up off the road! I kept waiting for him to say 'bazzinga'! This was the first time I could actually see the timing mat before the start! The race started on time at 9:00 a.m.
The course starts out on a paved road for about half of a mile, turning into a dirt roads for most of the race. There's a lot more sand on the roads then dirt. Mile 2 & 4 for only a half a mile at most, has trees for shade. In the past, I ran a 10k on this similar route, so I knew to bring a hydration belt because the water stations seem to follow no real incremented pattern. I was glad to have the water when I needed it! I did take water frofrom the water station, drank a sip & dumped the water over my head. Thanks to the volunteer who met me out on the road. YOU WERE my best friend in the moment!

The course is tough with more butt lifting hills than San Dieguito. I am not a fast runner so when I hit mile 3, I was amazed, I didn't see any runner's heading back yet. At mile 3.3 I finally see the 2 runner's heading back. It's seemed something was coming up! Turning left onto Los Alamentes Rd, I found out why. Miles 4.5 through 7.3 are hills going up! Yes, hills on top of hills! No water stations through here. There were a few trucks on the roads too but were cautiously going around runners.
On final stretch, up to the finish line, I cheered the girl with braids on, "c'mon now get up that hill! You're the shizzle!" I know, I'm a dork or the heat stroke kicking in!

The finish line, has no metals, but even better, some wonderful volunteer asking me if I'd like some water! Yes please! The race theme was Go Green 2014. Instead of giving out metals or t-shirts, you had to BYO t-shirt (or purchase one) for screen printing. This didn't last long because the screen was clogged and wasn't printing the complete design. See mine!

The race ends & starts at Cougar Winery. The new building is beautiful & offers a race logo commemorating stemless champagne glass filled with green champagne. Cougar staff are amazing & tolerate the smell of sweaty runners. Service with a smile & knowledge of their wines/champagne.

Time: 1:53:15

Overall: 107 of 167

Gender: 65 of 115

Age: 3rd of 5

If the sponsor Sandy Feet changes this race to an earlier start time, I might come back next year.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Over the last several days we had enough rain for mud slides, flooding, over filling the water in our pool, keeping me indoors, & unable to RUN! It wasn't enough to end the drought in SoCal, but thank you God for that miracle.
I have text my husband twice in a year, claiming I was going to drive over to the nearest gym and join up immediately! Can you guess what the weather was like when I text him?
My husband has a gym membership & takes my son with him most of the time for basketball workouts. I'm not a fan of a treadmill, because I find myself running up onto the stupid cover in front of me so I raise it up to in incline. The elliptical, I found I didn't get the same impact as the treadmill. *sigh*
There's no crying in running, so my whiny ass did some half hearted videos, cried over spilt milk, and drank diet Coke. Tomorrow, watch out! I'm back JACK!

Sunday, February 16, 2014

My first race of the year! Surgery can SUCK IT! I had a great time. It would have been better if I could have ran with a friend.

Gear prep!

I've come to the conclusion that all races, no matter what time of year, if it's in Coronado, California, once the sun comes up, it's HOT! The Silver Strand Half in November, HOT! The Coronado Independence 15k, HOT! The Coronado Valentine's 10k, you bet, HOT!

Wait for the sun. Cute mile markers, Candy hearts!

This race is follows the similar course as the Coronado Independence 15k. It starts on the road, but less than 0.10th mile, runners are ushered up onto the lawn of Tideland Park. Weird. It's wet grass, facing the sun, & I already begin regretting wearing a pullover. It came off during the first mile.

861 runners & walkers! #runstrong!

We head onto a bike path about 4 person wide across for first mile. Folks are already beginning to walk & becomes bottle necked through here. The route opens up after mile 1 where we run onto Glorietta Blvd which turns into Pomona Ave which turns into the Silver Stand. This course is primarily flat with no real incline. It rolls gently through by the golf course and around the boat yard. Did I mention it was hot?

Prerace. Love #runningskirt !

The turn around is at mile 3.2, the volunteers were great! The sun is now at my back. We run up onto the grass lawn of Glorietta Bay Park for a short distance back onto the bike path by the City of Coronado Aquatic Center. The Coronado High School Cheer group pumped me up with "wtg runner, you're almost done" at Mile 3.7! So awesome!
There were NOT a lot of spectators. The volunteers at mile 2.1 and mile 5.6 cheer wildly for all runners! Y'all made this race so enjoyable!
Mile 5.9 back onto the grass at Tideland Park toward finish line. The announcer gives your name a shout out. That was nice!

Salty and post race smile!

Thanks to the volunteer who hung the medal around my neck. It's crazy I know, but it's my pretend Olympic moment! Hahaha!

Matches my outfit!

This was the first time I've been in a race where the Overall & Gender results were based on the Gun Time and not the Chip Time. I was a little taken back & a good lesson to learn for future races.

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I may not win the race but I'll have fun trying to finish!

I'm amazing, married to a wonderful man, & have 4 awesome children! After surviving breast cancer, I became over weight & at risk for heart disease. My husband took me running & changed my life forever! In 2011, with amazing support of my family, I trained and completed my first half marathon. In 2012, I completed my first marathon. Come follow me as continue to learn about my body with every stride!